How to Prevent Summer Slide
This story is brought to you by Classroom Direct
This is the first full week of my children’s summer school break. We are still shouting FINALLY, IT’S SUMMER! as loud as we can. I love having the kids home and out of school for a couple of months. We try to cram in as many fun times as we can before they head back in August. From water parks and swimming to camping and late-night movie nights, we love finding ways to bond. We enjoy staying up past our normal bedtimes and being on our own schedule. In the midst of all the fun it’s important to find ways to prevent summer slide.
How to Prevent Summer Slide
My son has struggled in school. He loves going to class, always gets close to his teacher each year, and cannot spend enough time with his friends, but when it comes to the lessons he tries to rush his way through and forgets things fairly easily. He can memorize spelling words and ace a test, but by the next month he may have forgotten the words or start to mix up letters. That is why it is so important that during his summer break he makes an effort to continue his learning.
Make It Fun
Make learning fun by playing games. Our family loves hosting our traditional game nights all year long. During the summer you can put an educational spin on your game nights and your kids will never complain. My kids are all so competitive that they catch on quick with new games and it becomes their own challenge to win. We keep it fun and always practice good sportsmanship. More laughs are shared in our home during game nights than any other time.
My son is already planning a game night to sharpen his math skills with the new ThinkFun Math Dice Game.
Head Outdoors
It’s summertime, so head outside and enjoy some sunshine. Learning does not always have to take place inside a classroom. Instead of making kids feel like they are stuck completing boring schoolwork during their summer break, go outside and enjoy some fresh air while working on packets.
Classroom Direct offers workbooks that are filled with puzzles, worksheets, and lessons. The Summer Blast workbook is broken down to 9 weeks. Each week the kids are given regular work to prepare them for the next grade in school, as well as fun art lessons and puzzles. By breaking it up the kids will not become overwhelmed. My son loved that it was broken down by weeks so he felt like he was working towards a short goal instead of focusing on the full workbook.
Switch It Up
Instead of giving your child a worksheet to complete each day, change it up. There are many ways to prevent summer slide and keep the knowledge they learned this year fresh in their minds. You can add educational apps on your tablet or download learning games to your home computer so technology time is not all spent on their game station. I tease my kids about burning brain cells by playing too many shooting games, even though I know they practice strategy skills.
My favorite product from Classroom Direct so far is the Educational Insights Hot Dots Pen and card sets. My son has enjoyed working his way through the vocabulary cards and math questions.
The Hot Dots electric pen helps kids learn on their own. The cards have multiple choice options and they push down on the dot beside the answer they believe is correct.
The pen will light up green when the answer is correct. It is pretty awesome how it works. The pen also has word prompts telling you ‘great job’ or ‘try again’ when selecting answers. There are several kid-friendly phrases that it says. You can adjust the volume as well.
The vocabulary card sets come separated in school subjects.
Each subject has several cards ranging in difficulty level. There were some cards that my son knew all the answers to and some that he only could answer one or two correctly. However, even when he got the answer wrong he was learning.
How are you helping your child prevent summer slide?
Full Disclosure: Classroom Direct provided us with samples to review. All opinions are 100% my own.